[News] Going to church on Easter Sunday is good for you

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emaoconnor/churches-easter-services-coronavirus-outbreak

Garza even went as far as to say that he believed attending services would help people fight off coronavirus.

"Right now people are staying at home, depressed, it weakens your immune system, and they're most susceptible to disease through depression" Garza said. "But if they come to church, they're encouraged, they're joyful, their immune system receives like a B-12, and they're able to go do better fighting off any kind of infirmities."

Let's go down the pub then..... Same shit.

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk

Quite simply, they should close. Here's a theological response:

Paul talks about the importance of unity and against individualism in Chapter 12 of his first letter to the church in Corinth:
"...for the body does not consist of one member but many"(v.14)
"If all were a single member, where would the body be?" (v.19)
"...that that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another" (v.25)
"If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together"(v.26)

On NSC, there's a collective bond that unites the vast majority of us here, regardless of political viewpoints, backgrounds, wealth, occupations, family units, etc.

That bond is a love of the Albion. It's a body made up of different parts - all of us who comment in some way on it are a part.
- When a part of the NSC body is challenged to improve (cycling, running, weight loss, etc.), there's a sense of collective support from the other parts.
- When a part of NSC suffers (i.e. sickness, depression), there's a sense of collective pain
- When a part of NSC is lost (i.e. BG's passing), there's a very real sense of both individual and collective loss. (I still miss BG on here...it's not quite the same, is it?)

Paul's really getting at the collective nature of the church. The Christian life is not to be lived in isolation.
In the words of John Donne, "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main."

Secondly, there's a clear directive in Scripture to obey the law of the land as a rule.
Peter, originally a brash, outspoken and easily-angered apostle of Jesus, spoke of the need to submit to authorities instituted among men.
"Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. (1 Peter 2:13-14)

Peter was writing to believers who were being persecuted and martyred under the Roman emperors. According to Roman historian Sulpicus Severus, Peter was himself eventually martyred by crucifixion under Nero's reign. And yet, Peter was advocating obedience to human authorities. Why?

Since God himself delegates authority to earthly powers, Christians must be model citizens in their submission to them. Rebellion isn't part of the scene. The fact that sometimes authoriites misuse their powers doesn't give Christians the right to reject that authority. To reject that delegated authority is to reject God's authority.
"By me kings reign and rulers make laws that are just." (Proverbs 8:15)

There's one exception to that is where that authority commands us to do something which God forbids, or to forbids us to do something which God commands.
An example of this might be when the Hebrew midwives refused to obey Pharaoh when he told them to kill all new-born Hebrew boys, because "they feared God." (Exodus 1:17)

A 20th Century example of this might be Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pastor, anti-Nazi dissident and martyr under Hitler's reign:
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."

Defying authorities because of infanticide and genocide are quite different from keeping a building open against all advice in the middle of a pandemic!

On Easter Sunday, it's worth remembering that Jesus himself was submissive to authorities in the events leading up to his crucifixion.
The prophet Isaiah (writing 700 years before Jesus) wrote the following:
"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)

A selfless, sacrificial approach of putting others first was seen then.

It can be seen now in the actions of those in the healthcare service and other frontline workers who are risking, and sometimes giving, their lives for others.

Those lives are worth much more than a building.

Albion my Albion said:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emaoconnor/churches-easter-services-coronavirus-outbreak

Garza even went as far as to say that he believed attending services would help people fight off coronavirus.

"Right now people are staying at home, depressed, it weakens your immune system, and they're most susceptible to disease through depression" Garza said. "But if they come to church, they're encouraged, they're joyful, their immune system receives like a B-12, and they're able to go do better fighting off any kind of infirmities."

Click to expand...

Weird new kid getting weirder

Still, taking the positives, ***,'s not nicked any more random obituaries off tinternet and tried to pass it off as a family member

Let us all congregate, that's the answer.

I'm just going to leave this here.
Walk away slowly

and NEVER make eye contact:-

let them all go to church, then lock em in. permanently.

Idiots. Simply idiots. Only in America .......................


.............or are some idiots opening places of worship over here? Anybody seen any, or are the rules being fully enforced?